Waterstones' Book of the Year 2013: Stoner by John Williams

[Michael T]

Waterstones' Book of The Year 2013 is a novel first published in 1965*. What, if anything, does that say about the quality of novels being published today? Is it a one-off incident where the book was so good it needed to be brought to our attention? Is it perhaps a sales gimmick? Just seems a little unusual to me. Any thoughts... :smile5:





(*Stoner by John Williams 1965)

[Poetaster]

Not a sales gimmick, no. I don't think so anyway. With the recent edition published by Vintage Press, the novel has been doing the rounds among literary circles, especally at my university.

[Michael T]

Not a sales gimmick, no. I don't think so anyway. With the recent edition published by Vintage Press, the novel has been doing the rounds among literary circles, especally at my university.

Hi there, Poetaster.

It must say something about the quality of new books published in 2013. Plenty of classics from Homer's Odyssey to Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea get re-published as new editions, but they tend not to win 'book of the year' awards, even though they might be better than any new novel published that year.

[mal4mac]

Just read "Stoner", and it's a wonderful novel. Vintage press are doing a good job in republishing half-forgotten classics, it's good to see this effort gaining a prize.

The Waterstones shortlist is determined by Waterstones booksellers, and Waterstones say on their website "Our booksellers’ curiosity around Stoner, a quiet story about an unassuming literary scholar whose career stalls as he struggles with his marriage, was ignited last year, after booksellers spotted it was making an impression on bestseller charts across Europe. So, when Waterstones booksellers across the country were asked to nominate a title that stood out in its field and would be a perfect read or present this Christmas for anyone who loves truly great writing, nominations for Stoner flooded in." So unless Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea happens to sell well this year then it will not be nominated, and notice the "Christmas present" aspect. If the classic is well known then the potential reader might have read it already, so it has to be new or somewhat obscure. Also, Stoner has been praised to the heights by the likes of Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan recently, so it had a lot of "celebrity push" behind it for last Christmas.